The Data Deluge Column

 For the past 4 years I have been a columnist for Library Hi-Tech News.  I feel truly honoured to have the opportunity to do this writing and engage in discussion with the readers of my column.  While these papers are not the traditional type of peer-reviewed papers that academic librarians typically publish, I have found the process of researching and writing the column and engaging in discussion and debate with my readers to be one of the most professionally rewarding experiences I've ever had.  I thought that I'd scatter a few blog posts here and there to introduce some of the columns I've written.  This is not to toot my own horn but to, hopefully, widen the audience for this writing and also increase awareness and discussion of these topics in the library field.

For a very long time I have been very interested in the topic of disruptive change in libraries and about 10 years ago I set out to make a concerted effort to study the changes and document what I learned along the way.  Being asked to write a column has given me an outlet for writing about what I have been learning.

I'll start by talking about the columns by introducing four of the papers for which I got a lot of feedback and discussion and which ended up being cited in other papers.  Unfortunately, the column is not open access so you may need to either search for the articles via your library's discovery layer or ejournal subscriptions or request them on interlibrary loan.

1)  Column on libraries and the 4th industrial revolution

Frederick, D. (2016), "Libraries, data and the fourth industrial revolution (Data Deluge Column)", Library Hi Tech News, Vol. 33 No. 5, pp. 9-12. https://doi.org/10.1108/LHTN-05-2016-0025

This paper remains highly popular and I continue to get email on a monthly basis about it.  In terms of citations, I find it interesting that people outside the library field are citing it in their own papers.  In this column, I explained how there has been a series of industrial revolutions and that we are now entering a phase of a new industrial revolution which involves technologies such as robots, artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things.  The 4IR, as it is now called, is a data and information-driven technological revolution.  In the paper, I discuss how this revolution could be disruptive to libraries as well as how we seek and use data and information in general.

2)  Column on the changes in cataloguing

Frederick, D.E. (2017), "Disruption or revolution? The reinvention of cataloguing (Data Deluge Column)", Library Hi Tech News, Vol. 34 No. 7, pp. 6-11. https://doi.org/10.1108/LHTN-07-2017-0051

This is my second most popular column.  As expected, most of the interest in this column has come from within the library field and, more specifically, from cataloguers and technical services managers.  In this column, I looked at revolutionary development in technology and five related changes in cataloguing and library data which I argued are catalysts for significant change in the theory and discipline of cataloguing.

3) Column about open science and libraries

Frederick, D.E. (2016), "Data, Open Science and libraries – The Data Deluge Column", Library Hi Tech News, Vol. 33 No. 8, pp. 11-16. https://doi.org/10.1108/LHTN-09-2016-0040

I wrote this article when I was still a metadata librarian at an academic library but the topic came to be front and centre a few years later when I took a job as an information specialist (embedded librarian) in a research centre.  While I didn't know it at the time I wrote it, I came to learn that the topics of open science and research data management are important emerging topics in academic and research libraries.

4) My first column

Frederick, D.E. (2016), "Technological change, today and yesterday", Library Hi Tech News, Vol. 33 No. 1, pp. 5-8. https://doi.org/10.1108/LHTN-12-2015-0084

While not quite as popular as the 3 columns I already discussed, I was surprised how much feedback I got about this column in which I introduced both the column and my background in libraries and dealing with technological change.  What strikes me is that many people are not aware of how much libraries have changed in the past 40 years or so.

In a few days, I'll share another 4 columns.  The next ones will be those that are less discussed but I hope people will read and perhaps will spark new discussions.



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